Govt issues formal order freeing up sugar exports.

New Delhi: Government has issued a formal order freeing up sugar exports, a government statement said, after ministers agreed to permit shipments without any cap on 2 May to help mills clear some dues they owe to cane growers.

Exporters would not need permission for shipments from the food ministry but they must disclose the quantities sold overseas, said the statement issued late on Friday.

But even so India may only export another 1 million tonnes of sugar given unattractive prices, bringing total shipments to 4 million tonnes this year in an over supplied global market.

The government could ban exports again if they threaten domestic supplies, government and industry sources have said, as it remains concerned about inflation which was at 7.23% in April.

Previously, India, the world’s top consumer and the biggest producer behind Brazil, permitted exports in tranches. And to keep an eye on exports, the government asked mills to seek permission for individual shipments from the food ministry.

Mills, sitting on higher stocks, owe Rs 10,000 crore ($1.92 billion) to farmers, Abinash Verma, director general of the Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA), a producers’ body, told Reuters in an 12 April interview.

ISMA forecasts total Indian output for the 2011-2012 season at 26 million tonnes, nearly a million tonnes above the government estimate and higher than 22 million tonnes of local consumption.

Source : livemint.com